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Smallholder farmers’ perceptions of and adaptations to climate change in the Nigerian savanna

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Abstract

The savanna region of Africa is a potential breadbasket of the continent but is severely affected by climate change. Understanding farmers’ perceptions of climate change and the types of adjustments they have made in their farming practices in response to these changes will offer some insights into necessary interventions to ensure a successful adaptation in the region. This paper explores how smallholder farmers in the Nigerian savanna perceive and adapt to climate change. It is based on a field survey carried out among 200 smallholder farm households selected from two agro-ecological zones. The results show that most of the farmers have noticed changes in climate and have consequently adjusted their farming practices to adapt. There are no large differences in the adaptation practices across the region, but farmers in Sudan savanna agro-ecological zone are more likely to adapt to changes in temperature than those in northern Guinea savanna. The main adaptation methods include varying planting dates, use of drought tolerant and early maturing varieties and tree planting. Some of the farmers are facing limitations in adapting because of lack of information on climate change and the suitable adaptation measures and lack of credit. The study then concludes that to ensure successful adaptation to climate change in the region, concerted efforts are needed to design and promote planned adaptation measures that fit into the local context and also to educate farmers on climate change and appropriate adaptation measures.

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Notes

  1. Climate change may be due to natural processes or external forcing or to persistent anthropogenic changes in the composition of the atmosphere or in land use (IPCC 2001).

  2. Autonomous adaptation refers to “adaptation that does not constitute a conscious response to climatic stimuli but is triggered by ecological changes in natural systems and by market or welfare changes in human systems”, and planned adaptation is considered to be “adaptation that is the result of a deliberate policy decision, based on an awareness that conditions have changed or are about to change and that action is required to return to, maintain or achieve a desired state” (IPCC 2007).

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Acknowledgments

The authors are very grateful to participants at the Emerging Scholars Symposium, COP 17 in Durban, for their helpful comments and discussion and the three anonymous reviewers who helped to improve the paper. The financial support of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) through the DTMA project is also gratefully acknowledged. We would also like to thank Yusuf L. Idrisa, Ibrahim Y. Dugje and Satoru Muranaka for their valuable assistance as well as all farmers interviewed for their time.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

    Justice Akpene Tambo

  2. International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria

    Tahirou Abdoulaye

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  1. Justice Akpene Tambo
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  2. Tahirou Abdoulaye
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Correspondence to Justice Akpene Tambo.

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Tambo, J.A., Abdoulaye, T. Smallholder farmers’ perceptions of and adaptations to climate change in the Nigerian savanna. Reg Environ Change 13, 375–388 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-012-0351-0

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